Climate change is ‘devastating’ the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef, QLD

Australia

by

John Upton

,

Climate Central

Bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Photo: Oregon State University, Flickr

The scientists found March Coral Sea temperatures are likely to be 1.8°F (1°C) warmer now than before humans polluted the atmosphere. Temperatures recorded by the Australian government last month were slightly higher than that, in part because of a fierce El Niño.

“We’ve had evidence before” that “human-induced climate change is behind the increase in severity and frequency of bleaching events,” said David Kline, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography coral reef scientist who wasn’t involved with the new analysis. “But this is the smoking gun”